Approximately 5 million English Language Learner (ELL) students are enrolled in K-12 public schools throughout the United States, representing nearly 10 percent of all students. These fact sheets, drawing upon data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey and the Department of Education, examine the geographic distribution and top languages spoken by these students nationally and by state.

Using previously non-public refugee admissions data from the State Department, this analysis finds that even as refugees come to the United States from increasingly diverse origins and linguistic backgrounds, some arriving with very low native-language literacy and education, most integrate successfully over time. The report examines refugees' employment, English proficiency, educational attainment, income and poverty status, and public benefits usage.

With the young child population in the United States rapidly becoming more diverse, the cultural and linguistic competencies of the early childhood education and care workforce (ECEC) are more important than ever. This report aims to fill gaps in knowledge of immigrants and refugees in the ECEC workforce and provides recommendations for strengthening workforce quality to better serve all children.

In 2013 the Houston metro area was home to 1.4 million immigrants—with the nearly 60 percent growth in its immigrant population since 2000 nearly twice the national rate. This report provides an overview of the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of Houston's immigrants, along with their naturalization rates, legal status, and potential eligibility for immigration benefits such as citizenship or deferred action programs.

The recently created White House Task Force on New Americans in April 2015 submitted a National Integration Plan to President Obama, offering recommendations for federal actions to further immigrant integration. Proposals made to the Task Force by MPI's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy and others to support immigrants' linguistic, economic, and civic integration are collected here, as are other resources.

Immigrant adults in the United States lag their native-born peers in literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving skills, with resulting effects on their income, employment, education, and health, according to MPI analysis of U.S. scores on the 2012 Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The findings, which reveal wide ethnic and racial gaps in scoring, underscore deep U.S. social inequalities.

The English Language Learner (ELL) Information Center provides informative fact sheets, maps, and state-level data resources that chronicle the demography and trends of immigrant families and their children.

This discussion focuses on the MPI report, "Executive Action on Immigration: Six Ways to Make the System Work Better," which outlines administrative actions that can be implemented to improve the immigration system.

This important MPI report challenges the conventional wisdom about the immigrant workforce, using a sophisticated new method of analysis that permits deeper examination of how workers – immigrant and native-born – fare by economic sector, the skill level of their jobs, and educational attainment.

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This MPI webinar features U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials discussing the department’s efforts to improve communications with Limited English Proficient (LEP) communities in federal and federally-funded programs and activities.

The Migration Policy Institute celebrated its first decade as the authoritative, unimpeachable resource on immigration and immigrant integration analysis and policy design in the United States and internationally.

A discussion on the gains that young adult immigrants or the U.S.-born children of immigrants have made in education and employment, with speakers: Michael Fix, Jeanne Batalova, Andrew P. Kelly, Raul Gonzalez, and Margie McHugh.

This is the latest in NCIIP’s language access webinar series exploring the policy and program implementation imperatives for government and community agencies serving Limited English Proficient (LEP) populations.

In this webinar, experts discuss barriers immigrant and LEP individuals face in accessing the WIA system, how a revitalized WIA could address these barriers, and the extent to which the current Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee's WIA reauthorization proposal addresses these barriers.

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Recent Activity

This report summarizes new data on the health of the children of immigrants, who represent nearly one-fourth of all children in the United States under the age of 18, finding that those with Mexican immigrant parents in particular tend to experience greater childhood health risks than most of their peers.

This report examines three types of educational and health policy interventions that may reduce disparities between the children of U.S.-born parents and their immigrant counterparts during the crucial transition between prekindergarten and elementary school.

Low-income immigrant children are less likely than their U.S.-born citizen counterparts to see a doctor even when they are insured. Similarly, immigrant adults are less likely to use emergency rooms than low-income natives. This report examines health care coverage and usage among immigrants and the U.S. born.

This report examines the high school completion, college access, and postsecondary success of immigrant youth (ages 16 to 26) in Washington State, where one in four young adults is an immigrant or child of an immigrant. The report provides one of the first cross-system analyses of the educational experiences of first-generation (foreign-born) and second-generation (U.S.-born with immigrant parents) youth in the state.

Focusing on the health care and engineering sectors, this report examines the formal and informal barriers to professional practice that foreign-trained professionals encounter when they migrate to the United States.

This issue brief provides updated data, based on the Census Bureau's 2011 American Community Survey, on unauthorized immigrants in the United States, their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and their health care coverage. The analysis marks the first time that self-reported data on LPR status have been used to generate a national profile of unauthorized immigrants.

This report examines how a parent’s unauthorized status affects child development. Based on a review of existing research that increasingly points to negative developmental consequences of parental unauthorized status across all stages of childhood, the authors explore possible options for policies and programs that could mitigate these risks, and propose ways to achieve this goal within the framework of proposed comprehensive immigration reform.

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About the Program

The National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy is a crossroads for elected officials, researchers, state and local agency managers, grassroots leaders, service providers, and others who seek to understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities today’s high rates of immigration create in local communities. More here.

In the Spotlight

Want to learn more about immigrants to the United States from Mexico, India, Canada, or many other countries? Spotlights from MPI's online journal, the Migration Information Source, use the latest data to provide information on size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics of particular immigrant groups, including English proficiency, educational and professional attainment, income and poverty, health coverage, and remittances.

Want the latest facts and data on immigrants in the United States? Search U.S. Census data on U.S. immigrants and the native born nationally and by state based on demographic, language and education, workforce, and income indicators.

Resources

There are 1.3 million children in Black immigrant families in the United States, most with parents from Africa and the Caribbean. To address an important gap in knowledge about this rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population, this National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy project examines the well-being and development of children in Black immigrant families in the first decade of life.

Media Resources

Experts

Margie McHugh is Director of MPI's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. Full Bio >

Michael Fix is President of the Migration Policy Institute.
Full Bio >